This has been called the first ragtime song DS and is the best-known song about ragtime, JA-6 but “strictly speaking, it’s a march.” DS Ragtime served as a precursor to jazz at the turn of the century and, in its earliest forms, was the work of black composers. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” was, like the later compositions which were labeled ragtime, written by a white commercial songwriter simply hopping on a trend. LW-24

Of course, this was no ordinary composer. This was the first big hit for Irving Berlin, LW-24 who with more than 1500 songs composed through his career, LW-24 would become “America’s songwriter” DS and “one of the great architects of popular musician the 20th century.” LW-24

He initially wrote the song as an instrumental when he was 23. NPR When it struggled, he wrote lyrics NPR encouraging the celebration of ragtime RCG by referencing “the arrival of African-American musicians on the popular scene with their then-new idea of playing standard songs in a more exciting up-tempo style.” WK

It was submitted to numerous vaudeville houses, but didn’t take off until Emma Carus performed it in Chicago. Then Sophie Tucker, Eddie Miller and Helen Vincent all took up the song. RCG After Al Jolson sang it on Broadway, it became a huge hit NPR getting played not just in theaters, but in restaurants and dance halls, giving it a widespread popuarlity that was practically unheard of in the pre-radio era. RCG Thanks to 65 different performers with their mugs plastered on different covers of the sheet music, it became a million seller JA-6 and “the song that most changed the direction of American popular music.” RCG

Eleven versions of the song charted from 1911 to 1947. The most successful was the first to chart – the duet by Collins & Harlan, who were the most famous of all comedy singing teams. The duo had already racked up six #1 hits and 50 charted songs before this one PM-92 which not only became the biggest hit of 1911, WHC-22 but the biggest of their careers. PM-92

Note: Footnotes (raised letter codes) refer to sources frequently cited on the blog. Numbers following the letter code indicate page numbers. If the raised letter code is a link, it will go directly to the correct page instead of the home page of a website. You can find the sources and corresponding footnotes on the “Lists” page in the “Song Resources” section.